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Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, May 9, 2016 <br />Page 9 <br />Councihnember Willmus stated that he had similar concerns to those expressed <br />by Councilmember McGehee. However, specifically regarding criminal back- <br />ground checks of owners, Councilmember Willmus asked if a rental license <br />would be denied to an owner found to have a criminal background of some sort, <br />but not necessarily related to their ownership of property. <br />Mr. Englund responded that background checks on the owner would only be done <br />if the owner had access to individual units. <br />Mayor Roe sought clarification if that meant only criminal activities related to <br />building management/ownership, and not other issues (e.g. speeding tickets): <br />Mr. Englund clarified that misdemeanor and felony convictions would be high- <br />lighted in background checks; but that no direction was given by the city to those <br />conducting the checks as to the information obtained, with the city only con- <br />cerned that they be performed. <br />Councilinember Willmus asked if staff's research of other cities indicated any <br />giving using background checks for ranges of people. <br />Specific to background checks, Mr. Englund responded that most cities listed <br />managers. <br />Specific to the criminal bacicground check requirement in code, and proposed re- <br />visions, City Attorney Gaughan clarified that the ordinance required that the <br />checks be done, but noted city staff did not review the results, as it didn't want to <br />be the keeper of that information, and only included it as a checiclist item when <br />applying for a license for rentals to ensure rental properties are performing their <br />due diligence. Regarding the results of those background checks, Mr. Gaughan <br />stated city staff was purposely not going to be checking them to avoid any chal- <br />lenges to this portion of the ordinance. Therefore, Mr. Gaughan stated it was his <br />advice to staff to keep it only as a checklist item versus taking action or not taking <br />action on the information resulting from those bacicground checics; and a rental li- <br />cense would be denied if no verification was provided that the background check <br />had been performed. <br />If the ordinance was going to have such a provision, Councilmember Willmus <br />opined that the code needed to be explicit in what the city was after; and while <br />unsure how to word it, stated that this particular phrasing gave him pause. <br />Councilmember McGehee noted a further concern for her is, if a required back- <br />ground check is included in city code, there was an apparent expectation that the <br />city had done something with that information (e.g. sex offender). If this is simp- <br />ly a checklist item in a report for the file and something egregious happens, <br />Councilmember McGehee opined that it created an expectation that the city <br />